Comment 8 for bug 303559

Данило Шеган wrote:
> At the moment, we are trying to make it clear that people
> should submit their translations upstream manually.

I'll express my feeling as an Ubuntu and Launchpad user. I use gcc and I've remarked that its translation in French isn't completed. So I go to Launchpad to see how I could hep to complete the translation. I go to this page:

https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/+source/gcc-4.3

and I click on the "How you can help" link. It's written:

"Are you fluent in a language other than English? If so, you can contribute to gcc-4.3 in Ubuntu Intrepid by translating it with Launchpad’s Translations software. You can translate as much as you like, whenever you like — all you need is a Web browser.

To start, get a Launchpad account if you don’t already have one. Then choose a language below, and start translating. It’s that easy."

Ok. I have a Launchpad account and a Web browser. ;) It’s that easy.

There are 4990 untranslated strings for the template "gcc-4.3", but if we click on this template, we see lots of strings already translated but not used in gcc-4.3. It's very discouraging and demoralizing.

I encounter this problem with many softwares. timer-applet has strings translated in French on Launchpad, but not used. See my bug 296491. gcolor2 was fully translated in French on Ubuntu 8.04, but it is not translated at all on Ubuntu 8.10. See my bug 302630. gutenprint has a lot of strings that are already translated in French on Launchpad but not used. See my bug 303273.

I think that there's a big problem with the translations' management on Launchpad. As a Launchpad user, I would like to feel that my participation is useful. In concrete terms, how can we merge rapidly gcc-4.0, gcc-4.1, gcc-4.2 and gcc-4.3 translations to be able to continue the translation in good conditions?